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Violence and Forgiveness
If you're angry at the news, don't punch the TV that transmits the news to you. Turn the TV off then go out and destroy the old values that made the news. Then create the news that you wish to hear, not by broadcasting lies, but by BEING the story that is told. If you are angry at oppression, don't punch the "authorities" that transmit oppression. Stop listening to their authority then go out and destroy the system of values that put one person over another. Destroy the system of hording and trade that put others in need and at a disadvantage in negotiation. Once this structure is out of the way, the ground will be open for the new organic structure to grow. A structure that is even now growing OUT OF us as we reject what was brought DOWN ON us. What we are deciding at this very moment is whether people are more important or whether "civilization" is more important. The structure we have built will no longer support us. It WILL support a collection of self-guided machines AND it will be better served by them. Should our sense of self-sacrifice for the greater good extend to the sacrifice of the entire species? Or should we continually support individuals from birth until death regardless of their values rather than enforce code upon them so they will serve civilization from pre-school until death? If we keep treating each other like machines, we will be replaced by machines. Our continued self-sacrifice for the "greater good of humanity" will kill us all if we continue to confuse humanity with civilization. If we want there to still be humans we MUST destroy this present social structure. But there will be a period of confusion and conflict as the old either make way for the new or get broken and pushed aside like the eggshell that they worked so hard to create for us. As we topple the structure of oppression, we find our oppressors fearfully defending their position. The important thing to remember at this time is to NOT set aside our own pain, nor to use it to justify vindictive or even punitive actions, but to use our own suffering to weave a safe basket to catch them in as we pull their pedestal out from under them. To let them see the anguish in our eyes and let them punish themselves as we hold them as tenderly as we wished they would have done for us. To acknowledge their own suffering and to welcome them BACK into communion as we ALL shed the callouses that separate us. This is NOT the same as enabling an abuser. We are removing the structure that enables. It is Forgiveness rendered for actions taken under duress. We are all the victims. We all victimize each other. We must refuse to pass it back. Balance is not achieved by taking from one side that has too much. Balance is the dissolution of "sides", the destruction of the scales. The return of mutual support. But still, do not be afraid, ashamed, too smart, too righteous, too enlightened nor even hesitant to smash the faces of anyone who denies your voice or tries to reestablish hierarchy. To viciously defend ourselves while holding onto and keeping our loving compassion and ready forgiveness is the true test of our character. It is neither two-faced nor rebellious. It is quite simply how two equal forces of nature sort out their differences using whatever language the least responsive will hear. Try to not be the one who is least responsive, but appreciate that some people are just deaf and that that person may be yourself. However NO ONE is dumb. Don't be the one to deny the other's voice, even if their only available form of communication is violence. Just meet them there with your own violence. The violent may not have learned how to use words or signs, but everyone who has learned signs and words had to first come through expressing themselves violently. Do not deny any facet of yourself. Bring it all to the table and look the other in the eye as an equal, even if they haven't moved through their violence to use words and signs. Do not belittle their pain regardless of how you feel they magnified it upon you or how soft you think they might have had it. We are not measuring one another. We are witnessing. We are nurturing. We are forgiving. If the people who know how can not openly demonstrate the skill, the skill will be lost to all. I am still learning myself.